The Pittsburgh Steelers have had a lot of rivalries over their storied history. The Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Oakland Raiders, Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens have all earned rivalry status over the years. They have all generated various amounts of heat throughout the years, but none has topped what happened with the Houston Oilers in the late 1980s.
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Steelers Chuck Noll On Sideline
Chuck Noll earned legendary status as a coach and was well respected throughout the NFL as he neared the end of his storied career in the late 1980s. The Steelers were going through a decade of playoff futility, but Noll had still pulled off an AFC Championship trip in 1984. After a pair of losing seasons, the Steelers had a chance in 1987 to return to the playoffs and it touched off an infamous incident between the Oilers and the Steelers.
Jerry Glanville was in his second full season as the Houston Oilers head coach, and his brash style and the bad guy image he cultivated were in full bloom. Glanville embraced his role as a controversial figure which clashed with Noll’s stoicism. Noll had coached some of the toughest defensive players in league history, but Glanville was rumored to be pushing the ragged edge. The Houston coach had gained a reputation for encouraging cheap shots and attempts to injure opponents.
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Steelers Nemesis Jerry Glanville And The Houston Oilers
Fair or not, the Steelers rolled into Houston at 8-5 in 1987 and a win would almost ensure they would return to the playoffs. The Oilers won the game 24-16 and they ended up making the playoffs, not the Steelers. The normally calm Noll stormed off the sideline after the loss and he was not in any mood to congratulate his opponent.
“Number 24, tell your coach I’m going to meet him after the game and kick his butt,” Noll said to Oilers CB Steve Brown. “Who do you think is going to win?”
“My money is on you coach,” Brown replied.
Noll did not get violent when he approached Glanville at midfield, but he didn’t hold back either. He may have been trying to goad the Houston coach with the bad boy reputation, but Glanville was silent like a stunned schoolboy as Noll laid into him.
“Listen, your guys coming over jumping people, it is going to get you in trouble,” Noll said. “I’m serious.”
Tunch Ilkin and Craig Wolfley were fined $1,000 each for their participation in a fight during the game. The NFL worked a little differently in 1987 and when they appealed the fines, it wasn’t heard until the following preseason before a game against the New York Giants. Noll made an appearance at the hearing to support his players. Ilkin recalled in his book, In The Locker Room: Tales of the Pittsburgh Steelers From The Playing Field To The Broadcast Booth, how his coach handled the appeal on their behalf.
“Listen this is a bunch of crap,” Noll stated. “These guys were just defending their teammates. If you do not allow them to defend their teammates, you (Joe Browne from the NFL) in essence emasculate them.”
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In a precursor to the days of James Harrison and the entire team refusing to ratify the collective bargaining agreement over the NFL fine process, Noll passionately argued with the NFL to overlook the infractions. In true NFL style that would have made Roger Goodell proud, the NFL rejected the appeal, and Ilkin and Wolfley had to pay up.
Any respect that Noll had for Glanville went out the window after the game. The Steelers were not very good in 1988 but after losing in front of the home crowd, the 4-10 Steelers traveled to the Astrodome and served up a bitter 37-34 defeat that derailed the Oilers’ hopes of winning the AFC Central and foreshadowed the last great playoff moment for the legendary coach.
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Steelers Tony Dungy And Chuck Noll
The 1989 Steelers were a wreck the first two games of the season losing by a combined score of 92-10 to the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals. The whispers that had led to a purge of his assistant coaches at the end of 1988 grew into shouts, but Noll calmly turned the season around.
The Steelers found themselves in the AFC wildcard game against the hated Houston Oilers where they promptly pulled off the upset 26-23 in Noll’s last playoff victory. The loss was even sweeter when it was followed by the news that Glanville would no longer be the head coach of the Oilers.
Noll was too classy to gloat about another man’s misfortune publicly. Privately you have to wonder if he smiled, even if he did cost the Oilers’ Brown some money by not meeting Glanville outside the Astrodome in 1987.
What do you think Steeler Nation? Are you surprised Noll could get so mad at an opposing coach? Please comment below or on my Twitter @thebubbasq.
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